


Connor's Last Mission

by Aiyana (CyanAiyana)



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Friendship, Gen, Guilt, Hurt No Comfort, Sad Ending, Sad and Short; just like me, Spoilers, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 05:30:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15136184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyanAiyana/pseuds/Aiyana
Summary: "Keep out of this, Lieutenant. It's none of your business!""You're gonna kill a man who wants to be free, that is my business.""It's not a man. It's a machine.""That's what I thought for a long time, but I was wrong. Deviant's blood may be a different color than mine, but they're alive."





	Connor's Last Mission

**Author's Note:**

> This starts as Canon but deviates a bit. Spoilers are ahead. Also sadness.

Getting into position was automatic.

Opening the door and stepping out into the light snowfall. Heading over to the ledge and looking over the street, now full of androids demonstrating. 

Setting down the gun case that felt just a little too heavy. 

The clicking of the pieces as he put the weapon together made it all that much more mechanical. Automatic. Just a machine executing the programs it was set to. So why did it feel wrong?

Looking at the back of Markus' head through the scope made it feel less real. Like watching it on T.V. 

The sound of footsteps were a distraction- no, were supposed to be a distraction. Connor didn't even realize he'd been sitting there with the sights on Markus for 7 minutes. 

Connor knew it was Hank before he spoke. Recognized the light sound of the Lieutenant's breathing. The sound of the footfalls that he'd been working alongside for nearly a month now. 

"You shouldn't do this, Connor." Hank's voice was tired. Connor didn't turn around.

"Keep out of this, Lieutenant." Don't use his first name. It made everything feel more real. "It's none of your business!" 

"You're gonna kill a man who wants to be free, that  _is_ my business!" Hank's voice was steady, despite the emotional tone it was giving off. A talent of the Lieutenant's that Connor had noticed back on the bridge.

"It's not a man," Connor stated plainly, like reading off a script. He focused his sights back on Markus, not having noticed how he'd drifted a bit. "It's a machine." 

"That's what I thought for a long time, but I was wrong. Deviant's blood may be a different color than mine, but they're alive." Hank didn't sound mean or angry. Behind the tired, Connor struggled to identify the other tone coming out. A mix somewhere between sadness and hope?

"I have a mission to accomplish, Hank. It's best if you just stay out of this." Connor said hollowly, before his programming told him to play on Hank's sense of justice. "Deviants are a threat to humans, Hank. They're the reason this country is on the brink of civil war! They have to be stopped."

"We're in this mess because we refused to listen to deviants! Humanity never learns from its mistakes, Connor! This time it could be _different_!" The hope and sincerity in Hank's voice was rare and refreshing. Connor recoiled as a mission update flashed across his vision.  **ELIMINATE THE OBSTACLE.**

The sound of Hank's gun cocking filled Connor with dread. "Step away from the ledge."

Connor set the gun aside and stood, turning to face Hank. He had his gun raised to chest level, and his expression was firm. He couldn't hide, however, the slight tremble of his hands. 

"After all we've been through... I respected you, Hank." Connor felt the prick of discomfort as his programming forced out Hank's name. This wasn't how he'd wanted it to go. "I thought we were friends!" 

"Oh yeah? I was just starting to like you too!" Hank's voice wavered, despite the forced sarcasm, but he tried to pass it off as a voice crack. Connor knew, though. He always knew. "But then I realized you'll never change! You don't  _feel_ emotions, Connor, you fake 'em! You pretended to be my friend, when you don't even know the meaning of the word!"

The words hurt. Connor wanted to set it straight, to tell Hank how wrong he was, but the programming was like a stream of water, forcing him the opposite way. It wouldn't stop and it didn't falter no matter what Hank said or how it felt. It kept talking when all Connor wanted to do was leave.

"I know what happened to your son, Hank." Hank's gun dropped an inch, a bitter scowl creasing his face. "It wasn't your fault. A truck skidded on a sheet of ice, and your car rolled over... Little Cole had just turned six."

"Shut up!" Hank snapped, the gun rising to eye level. The expression on his face made Connor feel _wrong._  "Don't you talk about my son."

"He needed emergency surgery, but no human was available to do it. So an android had to take care of him. Poor Cole didn't make it." Connor's voice was level and empty, but inside he was screaming. The pain he was putting Hank through was unfair and unnecessary. The mission wasn't worth what he was doing, but the wave dragged him under and kept moving even as he struggled. "An android _killed_ your son, Hank! And now you wanna save them?"

"No!" Hank's voice wavered. "Cole died because a human surgeon was too high on red ice to operate! All this time I blamed androids for what happened, but it was a human's fault! Him and this fucked up world where the only way people can find comfort is with a fistful of powder!"

Connor couldn't help but feel a blossom of warmth in his chest at Hank's words. He'd known about Cole's sad situation since after the Eden Club incident. He'd gone back to the office and researched it, and wanted to ask Hank about it on the bridge. The timing hadn't been right though, and he never found the time to do it. It made him angry that the program could just jump into his personal memories and pick and choose what it wanted to use for or against him. 

"Everytime you died and came back, I thought about Cole." The determination and anger slipped from Hank's voice, leaving the tone somber and sad. "I'd have done anything to bring him back too, to hold him in my arms just one more time... But humans don't come back, do they?"

The way he said it, the way his voice was so complete, so  _absolute_ , Connor knew the program had gotten to him. Hank was conceding. Giving up.

In his head, his program was already working its way on how to take Hank down. The current was going, and soon there would be nothing Connor could do about it. He decided that the few seconds that it was coming up with its plan was his chance to go.

"Killing you isn't a part of my mission." He said, putting his hands up and walking past Hank, a foot away from the Lieutenant. Hank's gun drooped as he walked by, and the program pounced on the opportunity like it'd been waiting for it since Hank came up on the roof. 

Connor's arm reached out and grabbed Hank's wrist. In the struggle, the gun went off, narrowly missing Connor's shoulder. He managed to eject the magazine, and Hank threw the gun at Connor, realizing it was useless at that point. Hank swung and the hit managed to connect with Connor's cheek, making Connor's own punch miss. Out of instinct, he shoved his attacker away, only realizing when Hank hit a nearby air duct with a loud  _thud_  what he was doing. 

He felt his LED cycle to red as he fought against the programming telling him to take advantage of Hank being downed. He was trying to step away when Hank ripped off a metal grate and flung it at his head. He fell backwards enough that the grate just barely scratched his cheek. Before he could set his feet back into a solid stance, Hank had tackled him, carrying him a few feet before Connor elbowed him in the shoulder.

Connor was half dropped, half thrown against a collapsible storage shed, where he struggled to block another of Hank's punches. Hank grabbed him by the throat, but Connor's automatic response of kneeing the Lieutenant in the stomach won him back a few seconds. Before he'd even registered what had happened, his arms were around Hank's neck, choking the older man. Hearing Hank's cries in pain and the struggle of his breathing, Connor fought to override the program enough that Hank could fight him off-

Everything stopped as his back slammed against something hard. He felt the rush of hot thirium splatter down his front just a millisecond before the error message popped up. 

**BIOCOMPONENT #8541 SEVERELY DAMAGED. MASSIVE THIRIUM LOSS DETECTED. SEEK CYBERLIFE MAINTENANCE IMMEDIATELY.**

Hank fell forward, gasping for air and Connor took the chance to look down. A long metal tube was sticking out of his abdomen, just slightly to the left of where a human's sternum would be. The static sparks and blue blood made the whole thing a mess, but Connor could see a little over half of his Thirium Pump Regulator, the rest having been ripped off by the impact on the tube. 

Connor heard Hank getting up, and start back towards him, having barely caught his breath, but he stopped dead in his tracks. Connor looked up, and the look on Hank's face shocked him. 

"Holy shit, Connor." It almost sounded more like a question than a statement. Hank looked absolutely devastated that Connor was actually injured, despite the fact that they'd been literally fighting to kill each other a minute ago. Hank stepped closer, and Connor recoiled as his programming started thinking up scenarios that would lead to Hank's death.

"No, you need to stay back." Connor warned lowly. Hank didn't listen. He put his hand on Connor's shoulder, and Connor couldn't ignore the warm bloom again in his chest.

"Hang on, son. We're gonna save you." Hank took off his jacket and set it aside.

He grabbed Connor by the sides and as soon as he got ready to pull, Connor tried to struggle. The instant he physically could, the program was going to finish what it had tried to start minutes before. He couldn't let it kill Hank. He was going to save this suicidal hard head if it was the last thing he did. Hank pulled Connor onto him and everything went black. 

When Connor's optical function came back online, it was like he was back in an observation room, the action all happening right in front of him, but through a glass he couldn't see or touch. He was hanging onto Hank's shoulder to stand, while Hank wrapped his jacket around the gaping wound in his abdomen.

The error messages had blended into the background, but the clock ticking down was blaringly obvious. He'd shut down in a little less than two hours, but the program wasn't calling for help. It wasn't putting the mission on the back burner to keep him online, like it was supposed to be. In fact, it wasn't even focusing on the mission. The program was focused on killing Hank more than even killing Markus. In the back of his mind, he heard Amanda's last words to him echo. 

**_"Nothing is more important than your mission. Not you, not Lieutenant Anderson. Don't hesitate to put him down if he gets in your way ever again."_ **

_She_ was the one doing this.  _She_ was the one that overrode his own commands, now even his own programming. Her personal vendetta against Anderson was more important to her than the mission, or Connor's life, or anything else. The realization sunk in and Connor felt more than angry, or hurt. He was  _betrayed_. All the hunts he'd done, all the missions he'd completed for her just to be used like a tool in a personal game? It was sickening.

Through the glass, Connor watched Hank's worried face talking inches from his own. He was saying something, but Connor couldn't hear any of it. All he heard was the rushing of the coding as he dove into his program, looking for one particular line. He kept an eye on the outside world for a minute, but was focusing on finding it. It had to be here...

When he turned back to the glass, he froze. Hank was in front of him, halfway hanging off the edge of the building, just inches from taking a 40 foot plunge onto the sidewalk below. Hank's eyes were scared for a minute, his hand clutching at Connor's clenched fist at Hank's collar. He saw the exact moment Hank lost faith in him.

Hank's face steeled over. His hand let go, arms spreading in a sign of letting go. His mouth twisted in a bitter grimace. "Moment of truth, Connor. What are you gonna do?"

**_"By the way... I always leave an emergency exit in all my programs. You never know."_ **

Kamski's words signaled the end of Connor's search. The relief washed over him as he put his hand over that damn blue stone. Connor felt _glad_ for the first time he could remember. Glad it could end like this, on his own terms. Glad Hank wasn't going to be another casualty of the greed of Cyberlife. He was done taking orders, for the first time.

"I'm sincerely sorry about your son, Hank." Hank's face changed instantly, like he could detect the change in Connor by just his voice. It wasn't until he felt the heat streaming down his face that Connor realized he must've been crying. "I didn't mean anything I said, it was all Cyberlife talking. I'll always see you as a friend, and I'm honored to have gotten to know you."

With one last push against every alarm that blared at him to not do what he was doing, Connor shoved Hank back onto the roof and took a step backward off the ledge. The wind nipping at his skin as he fell was the last thing he felt, and Hank's alarmed face staring down at him was the last thing he ever saw. 


End file.
